Tula Pink Nest hexy cushion

I really like hexies and the whole EPP process. Although I've made a few hexy flowers over the years, I've never used them for anything. Until now. Yippee.

The hexy fabric is Tula Pink Nest. I bought a little hexy kit, then Liz shared some extra fabric she had sourced with me. 

There were a few firsts for me in making this cushion. First time doing applique, first time hand quilting. I enjoyed doing both. I didn't want to waste the extra squares I had, so I stitched them together for the back.

Mum has been visiting and I offered her this cushion, but now that I see the pictures I'm not sure I want to part with it. Oops.

Welcome Daylight Saving!

I love this time of year when it seems like summer might be just around the corner as evenings get lighter and lighter. In fact, I felt so cheerful this morning, I was ready to get Gypsy Wife out of the cupboard and tackle another section.

Here it is - excitingly named 'section 7'. It is the long panel bottom right which looks deceptively simple but took quite a lot of concentration.

Making the most of my burst of enthusiasm I did the big block needed for another section called 'Crazy Anne'. Yep, caused a little craziness and some of the points are a bit off, but I'm calling it a victory :-)

Round the World Blog hop

Rachel at Wooden Spoon Quilts tagged me recently for the Round the World Blog hop. Rachel has just started a blog although she has been very active on Flickr for ages. If you don't know her you need to check out her gorgeous work immediately!

Read on if you want to know a couple more things about me...

Where do I live? 
I live in Auckland, New Zealand. I grew up in Wanganui and moved to Wellington when I was 18 to go to university. I arrived in Auckland in my early twenties and never quite managed to leave again. Mystery photo below - a local would recognise it :-)

What am I working on?

This weekend I have been working on my Ginger Crush BOM. I'm really enjoying the lovely fabrics and the sense of satisfaction that comes with getting something finished.

Just that star to applique on.

I've also made a start handquilting (*gasp) my hexy cushion. I may be some time...

How does my creating process work?

Um... I get an idea, jump in boots and all with limited planning...problem solve when I hit a wall, then feel ridiculously pleased with myself...fall out of love with the project and put it in a dark cupboard for a while...have stern words with myself and force myself to finish...finish and decide I quite like it after all. Yep, I think that's about it.

I'm not tagging anyone in particular - but please do feel free to consider yourself tagged if you want to play along!

Some quilty secrets

There seems to be a rash of sharing quilty secrets going on in blogland. I can't promise you 10 - in fact let's skip the counting all together.

• My Gypsy Wife and I are officially on a break. I'm not sure how long it will last or whether we're going to need couple's therapy, but there it is.

• I love stars. I can't get enough of them. Hence the completely random decision to start a new project as WIPs pile up around me. I've called this project "Adrianne's stars" :-)

• I nearly always start projects without a real plan. A while back I started some sewing some hexies together. I like how this is looking, but I'm not sure what will happen next.

• Because of my reluctance (inability) to plan ahead, sewing is generally just one big problem solving exercise. Exhibit A - this one is due to the very popular not quite enough fabric:

• I get deeply and profoundly mad when the print on a fabric doesn't run along the grain. It's like the fabric makers are out to make your sewing look bad. Grrrrrr.

• I occasionally make lists so I can enjoy ignoring everything on the list. 

• I have pruned my blog post right back. I just want to see what you are making guys. Not read your advertising or your angsty story about not feeling good enough.
• I have a thing for cat fabric. I pretty much never sew with it, so I guess we could say I 'curate' cat fabric. 

Happy weekend everyone!

Star blocks

I love star blocks, I return to stars again and again. When it was my turn to suggest a block for our block lotto at Monday Modern I made this one.

The pattern is from Clover and Violet but I saw it on Adrianne's blog (or perhaps it was IG). Adrianne later adapted the original pattern changing the proportions of the star a little and posted instructions for different sized blocks 12", 9" and 6" finished.

I was in the mood to make another star quilt so I have begun her adapted version. I'm loving the way it is looking so far!

I am continuing to make slow progress with Gypsy Wife. I have to concentrate when I am working on it so it's not conducive to evening sewing. Evening sewing now sometimes sees me practising hand quilting. I drew some lines to follow after my first free style attempts :-)

The back looks pretty bad. I'm not sure if the stitches are supposed to be the same size as those on the front but I have a sneaky suspicion the answer is yes.  

Ginger Crush

I have always wanted to try a BOM. In the sometimes crazy busy chaos of my work life, the idea of structure can be very appealing. I admired Liz's progress on Citrus Sweet Love and when it came to pass that Treehouse Textiles & Cabbage Quilts were offering Ginger Crush as another BOM, I signed up in a jiffy!

The quilt has pretty muted colours, quite hard to capture well in photographs. I am practising my handquilting because I think I will want handquilting on this quilt when it is done :-)

I'm not too partial to butterflies, so I replaced the applique butterfly in the top block with a little wonky star.

Gypsy wife {small scale crisis}

The problem with making a scrap quilt is that it's difficult to determine how many 'scraps' you're going to need, and if you're like me and have a rather eclectic fabric stash, not everything can be part of the #scrapiliciousness.
Here I am with Gypsy Wife to date:

I have made quite a few blocks for the other sections but I've now used up most of my original fabric 'scraps'. I promptly emailed Amitie to ask for me but unfortunately they have sold out of many. So, as of today, GW is on a break while I wait for the fabric Amitie did have to arrive. Then potentially I will have to source some other fabric depending on what I think I will need. I have a feeling the break will do us both good. Last weekend my brother popped in for a coffee while I had this on the lounge floor.

Brother: "So where exactly are you heading with that??"

Me: "Nowhere fast, that's for sure, it's tricky".

Brother: "It's pretty intense. What about a cat mat?"

In the meantime have a back up sewing plan. I found some fabric that I think will be a perfect backing for my Tula Pink hexies. So it's handsewing on the 'to do' list while I wait for the postie to turn up with some fabric packages.